E1936 Specialized Rubrics

This wiki page describes the work and goals that have been completed and achieved while implementing Expertiza Project "E1936. Specialized Rubrics for Different Topic Types (e.g., Servo project, refactoring project)" for the CSC/ECE 517 "Object-Oriented Design and Development" class, in the Spring semester of the 2019.

Introduction

This Wiki page is created per CSC/ECE 517: "Object-Oriented Design and Development", Expertiza Project requirements (Spring, 2019).

Our team was assigned the project "E1936. Specialized rubrics for different topic types (e.g., Servo project, refactoring project)". This is an Expertiza project.

In this wiki page we describe the problem to be solved, how we solve that problem, and how we test our solution. We also provide helpful links and contact information for our team.

Project Description

In this section, we discuss the problem we need to solve, the Expertiza feature this problem is related to, what needs to be done to solve the problem (at a high level), and the previous attempt to solve this problem.

Problem Statement

This problem statement summarizes the problem as described in the project description "E1936. Specialized rubrics for different topic types (e.g., Servo project, refactoring project)".

In CSC/ECE 517, there are several types of topics that could be covered in a single class assignment.

• Code base
  • Expertiza
  • Mozilla
  • etc.
• Goal
  • Refactoring
  • Testing
  • etc.

However, currently we can only specify one kind of rubric for an assignment. This means that teams working on different topics will be evaluated using the same rubric. With this setup, it's not possible to fine-tune rubrics for different topics - rubrics tend to be overly general.

Feature Description

The feature we will add in this project is a feature to allow rubrics to vary not only by project phase, but also by topic. This allows more flexibility to the instructor when setting up an assignment, so that they can use rubrics better suited to the tasks that students are performing in an assignment.

When this feature is complete, the following scenarios will be possible, and the instructor will be the judge of which scenario is the best fit to the assignment:

• One rubric for the assignment, period.
• A different rubric for each phase of the assignment, regardless of what topic different students are working on.
• A different rubric for each topic, regardless of the phases in the assignment.
• A different rubric for each phase of the assignment, and within a phase, a different rubric for each topic.

What Needs to be Done

This section summarizes the work as described in the project description "E1936. Specialized rubrics for different topic types (e.g., Servo project, refactoring project)".

• In assignment#edit page "Rubrics" tab, add a checkbox to specify whether rubric should vary by topic.
• In assignment#edit page "Topics" tab, add dropdown(s) next to each topic to specify which rubric(s) are associated with the topic.
  • The dropdown(s) should appear only if rubric should vary by topic, per the Rubrics tab.
  • The topic should have a multiple dropdowns (one for each round) only if rubrics vary by round, per the Rubrics tab.
  • By default, the rubric(s) for each course project will be the one(s) specified in “Rubrics” tab.
  • The dropdown value can overwrite the default rubric.
• Be careful when making changes to the code
  • The signup_sheet_controller should have as little to do as possible with the selection of rubrics.
  • Anything not germane to selecting topics should be in another controller or (more probably) a helper.
• Create a DB migration to allow rubric to vary by topic as well as by round.

Screenshots

Current screenshot of Rubrics tab for an Assignment (need to add a checkbox to indicate that rubric should vary by topic)

Current screenshot of Topics tab for an Assignment (need to add a way to select rubrics for particular topics)

Previous Work

Here we describe what has been done by other team... [we should talk about what we LIKE and DISLIKE about their solution, to set the reader up to understand our proposed solution]

1. Wiki
2. Pull Request
3. Video Demo

Project Implementation

In this section, we discuss how we plan to implement our solution to the problem.

Design Strategy

• app/views/assignments/edit/_rubrics.html.erb
  • PROBLEM: There is no way for the user to indicate that rubrics should vary by topic
    • SOLUTION: Add a new checkbox for whether or not rubrics vary by topic

• app/views/assignments/edit.html.erb
  • PROBLEM: We need to add content to the Topics tab, but unlike other tabs, this doesn't have it's own partial view to work with
    • SOLUTION: Break out code dealing with topics into app/views/assignments/edit/_topics.html.erb

• app/views/assignments/edit/_topics.html.erb
  • PROBLEM: There is no way for the user to select rubric(s) for a particular topic
    • SOLUTION: Add a new column in the topics table for choosing rubric(s)
      • New column only visible if rubrics vary by topic, per Rubrics tab
      • New column has multiple rounds per topic only if rubrics vary by round, per Rubrics tab
      • Default value for any rubric is that rubric which is shown on Rubrics tab
  • PROBLEM: The code in app/views/assignments/edit/_rubrics.html.erb includes dropdowns like the ones we'll need to add for topics, but that code is not easy to work with (too heavy for a view, uses JavaScript)
    • SOLUTION: Use the code in app/views/assignments/edit/_rubrics.html.erb for inspiration only
      • Break as much actual work as possible out into helper methods that are simply called from this view
      • Views are not intended to do heavy lifting
      • Use as little JavaScript as possible
      • This is a Ruby On Rails project, not a JS project

• app/helpers/assignment_helper.rb
  • PROBLEM: The assignment_questionnaire method finds a questionnaire for a given assignment/round, and would be a great place to include code to find a questionnaire for a given assignment/round/topic, however the method is not easy to work with
    • SOLUTION: Improve readability of assignment_questionnaire method
      • Add comment block at the top describing the purpose and basic strategy of the method
      • Rename 'number' parameter to clarify the purpose of the parameter
    • SOLUTION: Expand functionality of assignment_questionnaire method
      • Add ability to get assignment questionnaires by topic as well as by round
      • Like round, topic parameter should be optional

• spec/helpers
  • PROBLEM: We are going to add code to app/helpers/assignment_helper.rb, but this helper does not have an RSpec test suite yet
    • SOLUTION: Add spec/helpers/assignment_helper_spec.rb file
      • Thoroughly test app/helpers/assignment_helper.rb assignment_questionnaire method
  • PROBLEM: We may also need to create other helpers or helper methods as we get into the code
    • SOLUTION: Add tests for any newly created helpers or helper methods

• db/migrate
  • PROBLEM: Questionnaires (of which rubrics are one type) are not linked to assignment topics
    • SOLUTION: Create a new migration to link rubrics to topics
      • This migration will add a column to the table "assignment_questionnaires"
      • This table keeps track of which questionnaires are used for which assignments
        • questionnaire_id links to a questionnaire
        • assignment_id links to an assignment
        • used_in_round links to a particular round of an assignment
        • the migration will add "topic_id" to link also to a particular topic within an assignment
  • PROBLEM: The project "E1936. Specialized rubrics for different topic types (e.g., Servo project, refactoring project)" suggests that we "add questionnaire_id in sign_up_topics table"
    • This suggestion would allow the rubric to vary by topic but NOT by round of assignment
    • As the current implementation supports rubric varying by round of assignment, we should keep this support
    • SOLUTION: As noted above, we will instead modify the table "assignment_questionnaires" to implement our solution
  • PROBLEM: The previous submission for this feature added a new table "topic_questionnaires"
    • This is not necessary as we already have a table which associates questionnaires with assignments and rounds
    • We are better off associating questionnaires with topics in this existing table to limit code changes and enhance code readability
    • SOLUTION: As noted above, we will instead modify the table "assignment_questionnaires" to implement our solution

Implementation

In this section, we provide selected portions of modified code to illustrate how we implemented the new feature.

[to be populated after coding is complete]

Files Involved

In this section, we list all files that were modified while implementing the new feature.

• [to be populated after coding is complete]

How To

In this section, we describe how to use the newly implemented feature.

Add a New Rubric

• [to be populated after coding is complete]

Select a Rubric for a Topic

• [to be populated after coding is complete]

Project Testing

To test code implementation, correctness of the added feature, verify that the team did not break any existing functionalities in the Expertiza, and ensure that no bugs were introduced in the code, we utilized the following Test Strategy:

1. Code inspection
2. Run and pass existing RSpec Tests
3. Develop New RSpec Tests
4. Run through live UI to test a feature using Expertiza instance

Rspec Testing

Our strategy for gaining confidence that our code changes did not break anything was as follows:

• Run all existing RSpec tests on any changed files, after our changes, to ensure that we have not introduced any failures.
• The commands and results are shown below.

  [to be populated after coding is complete]

• Write new comprehensive RSpec tests, for all new methods.
• Run these tests, to ensure that the new code works as intended.
• The commands and results are shown below.

  [to be populated after coding is complete]

• The test suite for a single new method is below.
• There are many such suites in (TODO add filename(s)).
• This example illustrates our general strategy:
  • test missing input
  • test bad input
  • test various acceptable forms of input
  • test scenarios that lead to "true" and to "false" return values

  [to be populated after coding is complete]

UI Testing

Here we describe UI Testing that has performed. Include Screenshots maybe?

Conclusion

[to be populated after coding is complete]

Useful Links

In this section we provide useful links related to the work that has been completed by our team.

1. Forked Project Repository
2. [(add link here) Pull Request]
3. [(add link here) Video Demonstration of Specialized Rubrics]
4. [(add link here) Video Demonstration of Passing Rspec Tests]

Team

Contacts

We have 4 (four) members in our team and 1 (one) mentor was also assigned to us. For any project-related questions/concerns please contact us:

• Aurora Tiffany-Davis - attiffan@ncsu.edu
• Ginger Balmat - gabalmat@ncsu.edu
• Joe Hutchinson - jehutch3@ncsu.edu
• Nikolay Titov - ngtitov@ncsu.edu
• Zhewei Hu (mentor) - zhu6@ncsu.edu

Contribution Based Inquiry

For any questions or concerns related to the project design, implementation, testing of the feature developed by our team, please contact an engineer who worked closely on the topic of your interest based on the Contribution Assignment Grid we created to keep track of our progress and contribution. Please carbon copy all team members and our mentor in the email.

References

• Expertiza Web [1]
• Expertiza on GitHub [2]
• Expertiza Wiki [3]
• Rspec Documentation [4]
• Wiki with Previous Work [5]
• Pull Request of the Previous Work [6]